Our New Favorite Cake

In fact he even requested it for his birthday instead of his former "favorite" carrot cake. But we had carrots that needed to go before we went on vacation and not a grapefruit in sight. So he had carrot cake. Mighty good it was, candles and all.

Essentially you're going to make an exquisite Yellow Cake Recipe, add zest to it, poke holes in it after it has baked and soak the top with syrup.

So ... blog reading and writing is a crazy thing. Recipe "adapting" is even crazier.

I first read about Pink Grapefruit Cake at Urban Comfort. She posted the recipe as "adapted from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller". So if I made / make changes to her posted recipe who do I credit now?  I'll play it safe and credit both and hope that's ok with all of you.  Ugh, the world of copyright and lawyers has just ruined the old days of recipe swapping.

Honestly, you can add any zest to this. Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit ... and it would be that kind of cake. But the grapefruit is amazing .. just the right amount of perfume balanced with flavor. I am going to try Lime ... but I have other recipes where I prefer Lemon and Orange.

Very Moist Yellow Cake Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs - if you can get your hands on home grown - do ... the very yellow yolks will give your cake a wonderful color.
1 cup milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil of your choice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
freshly grated zest*

*about the zest
grapefruit - I used the grated of one whole grapefruit - about the size of a softball.
orange - I'd use two oranges
lemon - probably 2, maybe 3 if they were small
lime - definitely 3, maybe 4

Syrup 
the juice of whatever fruit you zested**
1/2 cup granulated sugar

**how much juice?

grapefruit - all of the juice
orange - 2/3 to all
lemon - probably the juice of 2, maybe 3 if they were small
lime - again definitely 3, maybe 4

Urban Comfort says 1 cup of juice but she didn't use it all. Neither did I. I squeezed the juice of my ONE grapefruit and added the 1/2 cup of sugar to make the syrup. ❤ leftover syrup was added to sparkling water for an amazingly refreshing drink.

1. Preheat oven to 350° F / 175°C. Line the bottom of a 9" x 9" baking pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together and stir in the salt. Set aside.
3. Beat sugar and eggs at medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is thickened and the whisk leaves a trail. Beat in the milk, then the oil, grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate; scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Spread the batter in the pan. 
5. Bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack.
6. Meanwhile, combine the grapefruit juice and sugar in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and simmer for 1 minute. Set aside. 
7. After the cake has cooled for about 10 minutes, carefully turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and set right sides up. Use a long skewer to poke deep holes every 3/4 inch or so all over the top of the cake.
8. Begin brushing the grapefruit syrup over the top of the cake. It may be necessary at times to wait for the syrup to soak in, but continue until you feel like it won't absorb any more. 

Let the cake cool to room temperature. Ice if desired. Easily serves 9.

Grapefruit Icing - I skipped this ... eh, just not a fan of "icing." Buttercream frosting is another matter.
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon plus
1 teaspoon fresh pink (or red) grapefruit juice

Stir the powdered sugar and grapefruit juice together in a bowl until smooth. Using a spoon, drizzle the icing on a diagonal over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Slice the cake and serve.

Apple Spice Cake

September flew by and October was here before I could say boo! .. but was it really October?

The thermometer sure didn't agree .. we were basking in upper 20Cs (upper 70Fs) and complete sunshine without a cloud in the sky.  But the apples say fall. They've all been harvest .. and wow, what an improvement from last year. We had oodles, and we've received more as gifts from friends with abundant gardens: Quince, Pears, more Apples and fresh Walnuts - lovely!

So I confess .. there are no pictures .. the cake is gone. But wow, it was gorgeous - surely the best apple cake I've made in the last couple of years.

You'd like the recipe? Well that's easy, it can be found here. Yes, it's my staple carrot cake recipe. Just replace the shredded carrots for roughly chopped apples - I even leave the skin on. For seasoning this time I just used a teaspoon of ground nutmeg, but you can experiment too .. any combo of cinnamon, allspice and / or nutmeg work well. But don't over do it, I think the success this time was down to the wonderful flavor of the apples coming through without an overwhelming amount spice.

One thing that changes too is the baking time but I think even that's dependent on how juicy the apples are. My best advise is to start checking at 30-40 minutes and then every 5-8 minutes thereafter. The cake I baked to celebrate the 1st of October, my mostest favorite month took about 50 minutes.

I like to do mine in a bundt pan which does help with even baking .. plus it looks very pretty if served with a scoop of unsweetened whipped cream and a generous drizzle of the most amazing salted caramel sauce ever!

Zucchini Bread or Muffins

This simple recipe makes a wonderful, moist "bread" that's not too sweet.  The whole wheat flour adds a lovely nutty flavor and "healthy" color to the loaf.

Zucchini Bread

1-1/2 Cups / 300 g sugar
1 Cup / 235ml vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 Cups / 250 g all-purpose flour
1 Cup / 140 g whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 Cup / 100 g chopped walnuts or pecans - optional

Cream sugar and oil together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add dry ingredients and mix well, the batter will be thick. Stir in zucchini

Bake at 350F / 175C for 45-55 minutes until golden brown and an inserted knife comes out clean.  Cool on wire racks for 15-20 minutes before removing from pan.  If baking muffins, check them at 25 minutes and monitor closely.

Makes two regular loaves or four mini loaves. I baked these in my Pampered Chef mini loaf pan and had enough batter left over for two ramekin-sized muffins.

Cobbler

Cobbler ... of any kind works for me, but plum is my favorite and peach is just lovely.

This is my mom's recipe that I grew up on ... many many memories of yummmeeee plum cobbler made with those big fat juicy black-skinned with golden flesh plums.  Plus season was always the best, after school we would go by gather up huge bowls of plums. Shaking the tree asking it to give us more, which it happily did.  It was a huge tree and I couldn't even begin to guess how many bushels of plums mom would can, freeze or dry.

This recipe is plenty for a 9x13 pan. Tonight I made about 2/3 of the recipe for an oval dish that will serve the two of us nicely today and tomorrow, unless I have some for breakfast.

Put your fruit of choice in the bottom of the pan ... remove pits of course and cut into good-sized chunks.  I'll confess and admit that I used canned peaches tonight. Sorry, I needed cobbler and we had *nothing* fresh in the house. This was my substitute 4th of July pie!

Cobbler Topping

3/4 Cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup milk

1 Cup flour

Mix the topping together and drop by spoonfuls onto the fruit.  Mix 1/2 C sugar and 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and sprinkle over the top.  Then pour over 1/4 Cup warm water.   It might look strange, but trust me .. you'll get the best syrupy fruity flavor at the bottom and a lovely crunchy top ... but see that spot where you can see the dry sugar, I should have mixed that in - it was still there when I took it out of the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes at 375F / 190C.

The hole in the middle, that was me checking to see if it was done .. tonight it took over an hour to bake but I only just realized that I didn't have the oven hot enough because, yep, I did the math wrong again.

Word of caution: allow to cool ... the hot fruit can cause terrible burns - trust me!

I don't know why, but our cobbler is always served upside down.  Is yours?
This is lovely topped with vanilla ice cream, but completely unnecessary in my opinion.  Happy 4th everyone!

fruit cake

Color me weird if you want to but
I LOVE FRUIT CAKE.

However, I am picky, it can’t be too sweet and absolutely must be very moist.  What can I say - my mom made the best!  Actually she made two recipes - a “Light one” and an “Inexpensive One.” The latter being darker and moister, gooier and full of raisins and candied fruit.

Mom always started baking the first week of December, the first thing was always fruit cake so there would be plenty of time for it to cure.

And for the rum to soak in ... oh, yumm! Let the Christmas baking begin!

Mom's inexpensive Fruitcake

2 Cups raisins or mix of raisins and dates
2 Cups Sugar

2 Cups Water
5 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine
2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Cloves

Mix above ingredients together in a medium saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool, then add:

3 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Walnut Pieces (optional)
and Candied Fruit to taste - if you don't like candied fruit, increase amount of raisins, dates or consider chopped dried apricots.

Mix thoroughly and pour into paper lined bread pans. Bake at 325 F for 1 hour.

For maximum “moist-ness” pour one tablespoon of rum, cream cherry or other sweet liquor over baked cakes. Repeated weekly until Christmas your cakes will stay fresh throughout the New Year season too.

print PRETTY recipe card - Fruitcake.pdf

print BORING recipe card - Fruitcake.pdf

carrot cake

It doesn't get better than a nice, moist carrot cake.  I love it and  Axel loves it. But I never order it in a Bakery or Restaurant because it's just never ever quite this good.

This recipe came from my sister and she might have gotten it from Martha, but who knows.  Of course, I've made that one change again ... reduced the amount of sugar!  My goodness, why do they think we need that much sugar? 

This cake is such a favorite in our house that it was our choice for a wedding cake.  I'd show you pictures but it was the hottest day of the year and we ran out of powdered sugar for the icing so it was more of a glaze that was dripping / running off the cake and oozing all over the platter.  

CARROT CAKE

Cream together:

4 eggs

1-1/2 cups sugar (original recipe calls for 2 cups)

1-1/2 cups vegetable oil

Add:

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

Stir thoroughly, then add:

3 cups* grated carrots

Bake at 350F / 175C for 35-40 minutes and then check.  When an inserted knife comes out clean, it's done - in some ovens I've had to bake as long as one hour.

One batch will fill two 9" cake pans

1-1/2 batches will fill three 9" round pans plus 6 tuna cans.

Tuna cans?  Yes, I have about a dozen that I've saved and cleaned.  The make the perfect mini cakes.  Allow to cool, remove from pan, frost and then freeze on a baking sheet.  The wrap individually and put back in freezer.  Perfect for popping a surprise into the honey's bag on his way to work or defrost and serve sweet little mini cake to your girlfriends on a quilting day.


Update: APR 2012
Since we discovered last summer that I am sensitive to lactose (primarily cow's milk) we now substitute Goat's "Plattekaas" for the cream cheese. Just don't whip it! It will liquify and go all icky runny and adding more powdered sugar just makes it too sweet. Gently fold the sugar in for the best results.

*For years I have never accurately measured the grated carrots. I use my food processor to grate them and when it looks like the right amount I stopped. It turns out I've been putting in way too many which would probably explain why I often have to bake them so long (see baking instructions above). I thought just this once I would follow the recipe. It was *good* but not the nice, moist, oh-so-yummy that I associate with this recipe. So the moral of the story is ... add more carrots ... I probably use closer to 4 cups but you will have to work with your baking time and maybe even lower the temp a tad. I've also discovered that my oven here in Kalken rarely ever comes up to the temp I want so now I have to play with the controls all the while reading a thermometer placed in the oven.


Esther was also kind enough to point out that I never gave you all the recipe for the frosting. Here's the original.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING


3 oz cream cheese
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla


And my comments of course: Back in the day before my lactose intolerance I always use a whole bar (8 oz) of cream cheese because you can never have enough frosting. Now I use soft goat's cheese. It's not the same but still nice. A bit tangier so it's a balancing act between sugar and vanilla to get it just right. But I always use Mexican vanilla - that helps. It's such a lovely flavor and so different from just any old vanilla extract. I'm nearly out so a friend is bringing some from the states for me. 

the best ever chocolate cake

I first saw / read about this cake here.  Man it looked good, my mouth started watering and I began wishing it was my birthday.  And yes, I need a picture .. a pretty picture just like her's.  Next time I bake, have fresh strawberries, my counter is clean and the camera is working, ok?  I promise!

Yes, it's true, it's based on a Hershey's ~gasp~ Chocolate recipe, but first Alice made changes and then I made a few more ...  do you do that too?  Follow a recipe to the T or do you make your own changes, additions, omissions?

Oh ... um ... I guess I should explain the gasp ... the truth is I'm a snob.  A real chocolate snob.  It began slowly when I met my husband and has blossomed into a full-blown, read every label, it has to be real before I eat it snob.  Plus, I live in Belgium now - 'nuf said :)

deep dark Chocolate Cake

1-1/2 cups * 330g sugar  (original recipe is for 2 cups, next time I'm going to try it with just 1 cup)
1-3/4 cups * 220g all-purpose flour
3/4 cup * 85g cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons * 6g baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons * 8g baking soda

1 teaspoon * __g salt
2 eggs
1 cup * 235ml milk
1/2 cup *120ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup * 235 ml steaming hot coffee (original recipe calls for boiling water, Alice uses half water / half coffee - I went whole hog and just used coffee, yumm!)

1. Heat oven to 350F / 175C. Grease* and flour two 9" round or one 9" x 13" rectangle pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Don't skip this step ... and blend well to prevent white "specks" in your cake where the flour hasn't mixed in thoroughly into the batter.

3. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer for 2 minutes. 

4. Carefully stir in hot coffee - yes, the batter will be very thin. Pour batter into prepared pans.

5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.

*These days I usually skip the grease step and just line the bottom of my pan with baking paper.  Makes removal from pan a no-brainer.